An ink jet recording system has been recently spread abruptly because of advantages that a main body is small, low price, and low running cost. Accordingly, an ink jet printer capable of printing on non coated papers such as a transcription paper for electrophotography, a printing blank, a typewriter blank, a wire dot printer blank, a word processor blank, a letter blank, a report blank and the like is also put into the market.
There is an ink jet printer in which a glass, or silicon and silicon oxide on the glass is further used from the viewpoints of easy fine processing, processing precision, and the like, among ink jet printers.
An ink used for such ink jet printer is usually composed of a coloring agent which is dissolved or dispersed in a solvent and a wetting agent; a polyhydric alcohol or ethers thereof with a solvent, and according to requirement, contains a penetrant, a fungicide, a preservative, a dispersant and the like. However, when the ink is filled up in the above-mentioned ink jet printer in which a glass, or silicon and silicon oxide on the glass was further used and used or left alone for long time, a glass, or further silicon and silicon oxide which are in contact with the ink is eluted.
Accordingly, the design precision of the ink jet printer is lost, the size of ink drops and the discharge speed of the ink drops are changed, the quality of an image is lowered, and discharge inferiority occurs in the worst case. A conjunction strength is lowered caused by the elution of a glass or further silicon and silicon oxide at a conjunction part, the discharge inferiority occurs, and the conjunction part is peeled out in the worst case to be troubled. In particular, in case of an ink jet printer in which a liquid chamber part is composed of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, since the dimension precision of the liquid chamber part which requires precision is lowered, the above-mentioned problems occur remarkably.
Further, in case of an ink jet printer in which a fluid resistance is composed of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, the fluid resistance is lowered because of the elution of a glass or further silicon and silicon oxide. Accordingly, the size of ink drops and the discharge speed of the ink drops are remarkably changed, the quality of an image is lowered, and the discharge inferiority occurs in the worst case.
Further, in case of an ink jet printer in which a vibration plate is composed of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, the thickness of the vibration plate is lowered. Accordingly, the size of ink drops and the discharge speed of the ink drops are changed, the discharge inferiority occurs, the quality of an image is lowered, and the vibration plate is finally made thin and destroyed without enduring vibration.
Further, in case of an ink jet printer in which a nozzle is composed of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, since the diameter of the nozzle is enlarged, the size of ink drops and the discharge speed of the ink drops are changed, the discharge inferiority occurs, and the quality of an image is lowered.
On the other hand, in case of an ink in which a glass or silicon and silicon oxide was eluted, the solubility or dispersibility of a coloring agent is lowered, and the clogging and the like caused by the precipitation of the coloring agent are provoked. Further, the glass or silicon and silicon oxide itself which was eluted reaches a supersaturated state because of evaporation of a solvent such as water or the like, is precipitated at a nozzle surface and the like, and clogging is provoked. Since these problems are not solved at status quo, for example, a head is also simultaneously exchanged when an ink which was preliminarily filled up was exhausted, and the like, and it was used only for comparatively short period.
As ink jet printers for solving these problems, there is a method of prevention by providing a layer of an organic material and an inorganic material such as SiN, TiN, TiO or the like on a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publications Hei No. 5-155023, WO98-42513 and the like. This method has an effect of preventing the elution of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, but since production steps are increased, it needs a robust cost, and causes a very precious ink jet printer. Further, these films tend to generate pinholes, it is difficult to uniformly form the film, and defects occur often. Further, according to the system and structure of the head, there is occasionally a case of being unable to take the formation of the film itself in steps. Further, according to a recent experiment, even if these layers are provided, it has been clarified that a certain dye of a black dye cannot prevent the elution, and it is also confirmed that the elution exceeding the specification value occurs in other coloring agents.
There is proposed a method of preventing the elution by adding urea in an ink and dissolving stably a glass or silicon and silicon oxide in the ink even if it is eluted, as the ink in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publications Hei No. 9-123437. However, since even this method does not prevent the elution of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide it self, it cannot be applied to a part to which precision is required.
Accordingly, required is an ink, which is not eluted even on a substrate, in which a layer of silicon oxide whose film can be comparatively easily formed by a glass or silicon and silicon oxide, and further by an organic material and an inorganic material such as SiN, TiN, TiO or the like is provided on a glass or silicon and silicon oxide.
An ink in which the content of sodium ion is prescribed is described in Japanese Patent Application Publications Hei No. 7-51687. Further, the contents of sodium ion and potassium ion are prescribed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publications Hei No. 5-331391, and similarly, inks in which the contents of sodium ion and potassium ion are respectively prescribed are described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publications No. 333542 and No. 9-25441.
Further, the present inventor proposes an ink which contains a specific dye and a quaternary ammonium as its counter ion in the ink in Japanese Patent No. 1677642, and proposes an ink which contains a dye and a quaternary phosphonium ion in the ink in Japanese Patent No. 2085163. These are technologies which were proposed for clogging, cogation, preservation stability and the like. Accordingly, they are not those which were adequately studied about the prevention of the elution of a glass or silicon and silicon oxide being in contact with an ink, and further, about the prevention of the elution of a substrate in which an organic material and an inorganic material such as SiN, TiN, TiO or the like is provided on a glass or silicon and silicon oxide. In fact, even if these inks are used, the problem of the elution of glass or silicon and silicon oxide could not be solved.